Ta Da!

So remember my blackwork post? And the Pikachu pattern I posted at the end?  Well I did it.

It's not the greatest, and then when I framed it, it ended up crooked. But I like it. And that's my surprise!
I did the Pikachu, but then when I posted it at Sprite Stitch, it wasn't terribly well received - but that's ok, most of them hadn't heard of blackwork.

It didn't feel finished, so I added a scene. I thought if I did a digital-esque background it would compliment it. And I think it worked! ^_^

Anyhoo - see you next week!

Blackwork

I am a craft enthusiast. If it involves a needle (or pair of needles), I love it. I do beadwork, cross stitch, and knitting. Crochet confuses me, though I am working to correct that. I have yet to try quilting or applique, but I'm sure I'll get around to them eventually.

I am also an avid supporter of the library system. Especially in a recession when spare money for non-essentials like books on crafts doesn't come easily in my family. A library comes in handy - plus when perusing the craft book section, I occasionally come upon new sub-genres in my current favorite craft genres.

A couple of weeks ago I stumbled upon a book that described Blackwork, a history that goes back to the Moorish occupation of Spain, and perhaps even further. If you look at the original blackwork designs (or what remains in portraits) you will find a lot of them look like the geometric patterns of the Moorish architecture. It wasn't until Queen Elizabeth changed the patterns to a more 'English aesthetic' with fruits, flowers, and herbs that we saw changes to how blackwork was used.

But I am getting ahead of myself.

What is blackwork?

Blackwork is a form of counted thread embroidery that traditionally used black thread (I bet you guessed) in geometric patterns. Originally used for cuffs and simple decoration, this reversible style of stitching was hardly simple. It was also originally used with silk thread on expensive fabrics.

It reached England in the 1500's and possibly earlier (Chaucer included a description in the Canterbury Tales), but it is Catherine of Aragon who is attributed to bringing it over to England from Spain, which led to it being called Blackwork or 'Spanish work'. But trying to find a portrait of Catherine that has blackwork in it has been difficult. This is the best I could find. I'm sure the patterns on the sleeves and bodice are actually brocade or damask fabric (I could be wrong), but if you look around the cuffs you'll see a painter's hint at what could have been blackwork.

Can you only imagine the work that has to go in to such a piece? Since this isn't the greatest of blackwork portrait examples, I give you -

Jane Seymour - If you look at the cuffs you'll see beautiful black designs lovingly detailed by the painter.

Mary Cornwalis - This blackwork is showing Queen Elizabethan influence with the motifs being floral, and not on the cuffs (since there are none to speak of) but on the collar, sleeves and bodice as well. Since the sleeves and bodice were not meant to be seen from both sides, this type of blackwork was not reversible, and more of shapes outlined and then filled with the goemetric blackwork patterns which give it a shaded appearance.

And now for the Queen Elizabeth I herself - Beautiful blackwork covering sleeves and skirt. (I can only imagine the hours it took. @_@) Despite an unfortunate interest in the funky collars, Queen Elizabeth I was a fashionable gal. The portraits I have seen of her are amazing. This is the best I found with blackwork on it.


Sadly blackwork saw a decline after Queen Elizabeth I, but like all great crafts, never went away completely. Happily with the resurgence of interest in the 'old arts' blackwork, like many other crafts, are coming out of obscurity. And modern blackwork is no longer completely black. With the many colored threads available to us,it would be foolish not to branch out and use colors.

The more I discover about needle arts amaze me. Yet my abilities with the needle are still small - so I have designed a project more to my tastes, which I hope to finish in a couple of days. I am supposed to be working on a trade with a friend from Sprite Stitch but my q-frame hasn't arrived yet, I am fidgety.

Made by Faewren ^_^

I present blackwork Pikachu! I am a Pokefan and have been since 1999 when I first went to college. So a Pokemon felt like a good place to start. I designed him in the Elizabethan style with an outline first, then with filler. I used extra shading, and left in the facial details and the arms. I think he came out splendidly.

If anyone wants the pattern you can use it, but since it was designed by me I'd appreciate credit if you plan on posting this anywhere.

There are a LOT of awesome blackwork examples out there. And not all of them are from portraits of Medieval women. I leave it to you to look up the pretties.

I'll end with a quote that I found that seems to sum up blackwork adequately.

"Blackwork is black, except when it’s not. Blackwork is reversible, except when it’s not. Blackwork is a counted thread technique, except when it’s not. Blackwork is called “blackwork,” except (you guessed it) when it’s not."

From Sprite to Stitched, part 2 'Making the Pattern'

Ok. Now you have your sprite. Now what?

I usually use Paint, since it's easy to use and comes with just about every computer out there (sorry to you Mac users, I'm a PC person!). Some people use Gimp or Photoshop, but I'm not a computer genius, so I stick to what I know.

Most sprite sheets I know of have weird color backgrounds, so once I've imported the sheet to Paint, there's a small amount of clean-up that has to be done.

This is an awesome sprite sheet of the Octorok enemies from The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap by Sblaka. The great thing about these sprite sheets is that you have so many angles, colors and sometimes even effects. For my pattern though, I chose the simple front-facing red octorok.

The only problem is that the sprite is TINY!!! So further modification is needed to make this work for your eyes (I do not promote eye-strain, doing stitching and beadwork has already made me near-sighted).

You have a few choices. You can either find an online cross stitch program, buy a cross stitch program, or enlarge the pic, print it out on a color printer and try to eyeball the colors.

If you're wanting to get an online program, a good one is KGchart. It is simple to use, and it tells you your thread colors! ^_^  For a list of other chart programs I defer to the wonderful folks at Sprite Stitch. Also from Servotron at Sprite Stitch a wonderful 'how-to' on KGchart.

For those of you who just want to print it out and so on - here's how I do it.
Step 1: Enlarge the sprite - it makes it easier to see.
Step 2: Figure out how many colors it needs.
Step 3: Make a color grid going from darkest to lightest.
Step 4: Print and go shopping.

After that it's easy. One square equals one stitch. 14 count is the most common fabric (at least at my store) which means 14 stitches to one inch. The Octorok is 15 x 16 stitches. Perfect as a bookmark design or a magnet. (It's still 9 colors and 174 stitches in total so it will take at LEAST an hour for beginners.)

There is some argument about using white in a sprite vs. stitching on a white surface. Personally I don't always use white fabric, so I always stitch it in. It give the sprite a solidarity, and there's no holes in the middle of the pattern. Although if you wanted a slight 'relief' look to it, or if there is a background color that there is a LOT of (like the blue in Super Mario Bros. World 1-1) then not stitching may save you on thread, patience and sanity.

And that's it, you've got your sprite, you've got your pattern - now go and get your supplies and voila! You have a happy self/boyfriend/girlfriend/husband/wife/friend/significant other/WHATEVER!!! ^_^

From Sprite to Stitched, part 1 'Finding the Sprite'

So you want to make a cross stitch of a video game character do you? Dating/Married to a gamer? Or are you a gamer yourself? But wait - where do these people get their patterns? Is there a website?

Actually there are a LOT of websites. Look up 'video game sprites' on Google and you get hundreds of thousands of results. (As of today I got over half a million results - and that was just websites not sprites.) The key then is to find the good websites out there. No website has all the sprites you might want, so Google searches and the like are your friend. But it is nice to have a place to start from.

Here are a few websites that can start you on your spriting journey.

The Spriters Resource - An excellent website with lots of games. This resource seems to be the site that collections go to when other sprite sites give up the ghost, plus they update regularly.

The Video Game Museum - They have some wonderful screen shots. An excellent place for opening shots - for those of you who like stitching the giant projects. Plus they have a lot of systems to choose from.

Video Game Sprites - Over 30,000 sprites, plenty of game systems to choose from.

Deviant Art - This site is a treasure trove of custom sprites as well as ripped ones.

Just a word of caution though in using sprites. For the most part, you will not own the copyright to characters (even original custom sprites). Selling the crafts you make with the sprites can get you in trouble. It's better to not chance it. However, if you post your stuff in a gallery format, you should be fine.

Free Pixel Pattern

In honor of my Hokusai article from yesterday, I present the first free pixel pattern - The Great Wave Kimono.

 I love the look of cross stitched kimonos (and trust me there are a LOT out there) but all kits have outrageous prices attached. So I thought I'd make one. Making the kimono template wasn't easy, but after researching lots of kimono patterns, I decided that this 'open' version was my favorite.

I'm not ashamed to admit that I use the Paint program. It's really, really simple to use and it works incredibly well with pixel art - and not just my kimonos. Video game sprites anyone?

Anyhoo - here's my kimono template that's completely free to use if you so desire.

However if you do borrow it for something online, or for a crafty project, send me a pic, or link it to me? I would love to see what people do with their own kimono projects!